the small firm and solo practice

ready for tax season? not so fast

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purple no. 4 billiard ball4 resolutions to keep as you prepare for busy season.

by sandi leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

i’ve worked with a lot of accountants who do not realize how valuable their skills are in the marketplace. most people can’t do what we do with numbers. we need to shake any self-limiting beliefs we have in this area because it limits our ability to serve more clients.

more on small-firm growth strategies: make your services an investment, not an expense | how a spreadsheet can help stop leaks | 9 ways to boost your value (and your fees) | 9 ways accountants throw away profits

if you were making resolutions for the accounting industry, what would you suggest? the first resolution i’d make is:
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trashing the spreadsheet: best practices in modern expense management

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ushering a new wave: automated solutions.
ushering in a new wave of automated solutions.

how digitizing can benefit clients – and you.

by michelle long and sandi leyva
the ultimate accounting virtual conference

in this session on trashing the spreadsheet, stories in expense automation, we’re going to hear a lot about best practice. we know a lot of you have clients who have expense automation needs.

more small firm growth strategies: how to find hidden money for your clients | why clients need dashboards | 3 ways to implement value pricing | how small firms can use value pricing | 3 ways to raise your prices | building reputation to build your business | 3 killer lead generation channels | your existing clients are your best leads | need more business? focus on referrals

today, we hear from jason mills, director of customer experience at expensify. read more →

make your services an investment, not an expense

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businessman holding idea light bulb; dollars passing through grow larger5 value-added service areas to suggest.

by sandi leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

every business needs to do some level of bookkeeping for a couple of reasons:

  1. various government agencies require reporting and payments based on the company’s results.
  2. the owner needs a certain amount of information to manage their business and keep it profitable.

more on small-firm growth strategies: want more clients? take these 5 steps | do you want to do compliance your whole career? | 7 ways to get new revenue from old clients | how to work the same hours and make more money | four ways to stop leaving money on the table

many business owners hire us grudgingly for compliance work because they have to. and they consider what they pay us as an overhead expense that is a required cost.

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how to find hidden money for your clients

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$100 bills behind a curled pagedata will lead you to opportunities if you know how to use it.

by michelle long and sandi leyva

we’re talking about using dashboards to make more money with mike milan, the senior vice president of finagraph.

more small firm growth strategies: why clients need dashboards | 3 ways to implement value pricing | how small firms can use value pricing | 3 killer lead generation channels

mike milan:

how do i use this dashboard to talk to an individual? every business may be a little different but you can always start from the same template and then add in or take away.

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set fee by focusing on value first

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hand moving triangle along beam to indicate balance between price and valuethe right time to talk about your fee is not as soon as a potential client calls.

by sandi leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

how do you talk to a prospect or client about your fee?

more on small-firm growth strategies: prospects like a little wooing | 9 ways to boost your value (and your fees) | two daily rituals: focus and measure | how to calculate your ‘opportunity number’

some of the answers i have heard are:

  • “it depends.”
  • “tell them and get off the phone as fast as possible.”
  • “i don’t know.”
  • “what is your budget?”

most accountants spill the beans about their rates way too early in a conversation with a future client. so when should you talk rates?

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why clients need dashboards

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finagraph screenshotsit’s all about packaging the information they need in an easy-to-digest format.

by michelle long and sandi leyva
the ultimate accounting virtual conference

we were talking about using dashboards to make more money with mike milan, the senior vice president of finagraph.

more small firm growth strategies: 3 ways to implement value pricing | how small firms can use value pricing | 3 ways to raise your prices | building reputation to build your business | 3 killer lead generation channels | your existing clients are your best leads | need more business? focus on referrals

mike has entrepreneurial experience, has created his own businesses and business ventures and helped others as a consultant. he’s known for crafting ideas into million-dollar companies, which is a really great skill to have. here are excerpts from our conversation:

mike milan:

if you look at my background i’ve been part of nine different startups, five different transactions with three on the sales side and two on the buy side. in between doing finagraph and selling my business i did some consulting. and so i had some boots on the ground or life in the trenches that i really would like to impart and share with the group.

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3 ways to implement value pricing

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screen shot 2015-11-05 at 3.28.20 pmwhere’s your client’s roi? that’s where you meet.

by michelle long and sandi leyva
the ultimate accounting virtual conference

here are three tips on implementing value pricing.

  1. focus on one of your services and not all of them.
  2. focus on the best service you think you have.
  3. what do you think is the most profitable service you have? that would be the one that is right for converting to value pricing.

more small firm growth strategies: how small firms can use value pricing | 3 ways to raise your prices | building reputation to build your business | 3 killer lead generation channels | your existing clients are your best leads | need more business? focus on referrals

what i mean by profitable is profitable for your clients and not necessarily profitable for you – although it will be once you move to value pricing, because value pricing is very profitable.

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want more clients? take these 5 steps

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5 steps to successwhy skipping ahead is costly.

by sandi leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

there are five simple steps to getting more clients. but guess what? most accountants make a big mistake along the way.

more on small-firm growth strategies: prospects like a little wooing | do you want to do compliance your whole career? | 5 skills to grow your practice | is it time to reboot your practice? | how a spreadsheet can help stop leaks | 3 ways to get to ‘yes’ with prospects | design your business around your strengths | two daily rituals: focus and measure | how to work the same hours and make more money

first, here are the five steps to get more clients:

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how small firms can use value pricing

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two businesswomen meeting in an officestep 1: know what your customer values.

by michelle long and sandi leyva
the ultimate accounting virtual conference

value pricing is commonly used with consultants in large firms, but how do we apply it to the very small firms?

what is value pricing? it’s a special type of pricing method that is highly misunderstood in this industry. a lot of people, when they go up on their price, they call it value pricing and that’s not correct. value pricing has nothing to do with cost, it has nothing to do with time or market; it has to do with what the customer vales. that is the only input that goes into value pricing: what the customer values. there is no relation to cost.

more small firm growth strategies: 3 ways to raise your prices | building reputation to build your business | 3 killer lead generation channels | your existing clients are your best leads | need more business? focus on referrals

value pricing is hard because you have to know what the customer values. you have to be really good at putting yourself in the client’s shoes in order to do value pricing. now let me talk about different pricing methods briefly because i think that will help you a little bit.

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prospects like a little wooing

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surprised businesswoman with laptop7 ways to set yourself apart from the competition.

by sandi leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

as the competition for clients heats up, it’s time to pull out all the stops and make your prospect feel like you’ve rolled out the red carpet.

 

more on small-firm growth strategies: do you want to do compliance your whole career? | 5 skills to grow your practice | 3 ways to get to ‘yes’ with prospects | 5 cool ways to streamline data sharing | 3 tips for following up with prospects | if you don’t develop your business, who will? | 11 ways to add value for clients | 5 things you know that clients don’t | 8 must-haves for a prospect kit | if you’re a ‘best-kept secret’ cut it out!

how can you do that? here are seven ways to wow your prospect and help them decide you’re the perfect vendor for them.

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how the smallest firms can make better technology decisions

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johnston, garrett, tankersley
johnston, garrett, tankersley

that means hardware, os and licensing (hello, audit!). bonus checklist: business vs. home computer models.

by randolph p. johnston, leslie garrett, and brian f. tankersley
the accounting firm operations and technology survey

computer hardware and operating systems provide the foundation from which firms and their staff members manage their work tasks every day. while some practitioners focus more on the brand of the system rather than the quality of the components it contains, we believe that all of the major hardware manufacturers make some excellent, business-grade hardware, and they all also make some low-cost, low-quality items targeted at home users that are not appropriate for use in a business environment.

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5 skills to grow your practice

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young businesswoman walking up green line on a graphlisten for your clients’ pain points.

by sandi leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

we’ve worked super-hard on gaining our accounting, tax and auditing skills. those skills alone will keep us working as employees for someone else, but what if we want to go out on our own or grow our business beyond what we have now?

more on small-firm growth strategies: is it time to reboot your practice? | 5 ways to get more referrals | how a spreadsheet can help stop leaks | 9 ways to boost your value (and your fees) | 3 ways to get to ‘yes’ with prospects | two daily rituals: focus and measure | 5 cool ways to streamline data sharing | 7 ways to get new revenue from old clients | 5 things you know that clients don’t

here are five skills to consider adding to your toolbox so you can get ahead faster. how do you rate in each of these areas?
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is it time to reboot your practice?

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man in suit pushing a restart button4 steps to turn things around.

by sandi leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

how does your current business look compared to the one you dreamed about before you started your entrepreneurial journey?

more on small-firm growth strategies: 5 ways to get more referrals | 9 ways to boost your value (and your fees) | 3 ways to get to ‘yes’ with prospects | 5 cures for the summertime blues | two daily rituals: focus and measure | how to calculate your ‘opportunity number’ | 9 ways accountants throw away profits | if you don’t develop your business, who will? | draw new clients in like a magnet | 9 ways to increase sales through ‘power networking’ | 3 ways to test your revenue forecast | whip out the wow factor for clients | how to work the same hours and make more money | take advantage of 4 key marketing strategies  | four ways to stop leaving money on the table

do you now have

  • clients you love,
  • a dream team,
  • the financial rewards you are comfortable with and
  • plenty of free time?

if not, don’t give up. you can still get there, and a little business clarity may help you get there even faster.

here are four steps:

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